Opt in system and method

ABSTRACT

A financial transaction system includes a computer readable storage medium and a processor in communication with the computer readable storage medium. The processor is configured to receive a financial transaction request message from a payment device reader, and parse the financial transaction request message. The financial transaction request message includes a cardholder response to an offer to enroll in a loyalty program of a commercial entity. The processor is further configured to store the cardholder response in the computer readable storage medium.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/352,420, filed on Jan. 12, 2009, and entitle“Opt in System and Method,” the entire disclosure of which applicationis incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

The disclosed system and method relate to financial transaction systems.More specifically, the disclosed system and method relate to systems foropting into non-financial programs at a point of sale.

BACKGROUND

Financial transactions that use payment devices, such as credit cards,are commonly used. Merchants and payment device issuers, e.g.,commercial banks, frequently offer rewards or loyalty programsassociated with use of the payment devices. To participate in many ofthese loyalty and rewards programs, a customer must be aware that suchloyalty or awards programs exist, and the customer is required tocomplete and submit paperwork to the merchant or issuer, or subscribewhile on a phone call with on of the parties. Accordingly, manycustomers do not take advantage of the loyalty or rewards programs thatare available to them and thus miss out on opportunities to save moneyby receiving coupons or free or discounted merchandise.

A system and method that provides cardholders enhanced capabilities toparticipate in loyalty or rewards programs and take advantage of specialoffers is desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

In some embodiments, a financial transaction system includes a computerreadable storage medium and a processor in communication with thecomputer readable storage medium. The processor configured to receive afinancial transaction request message from a payment device reader, andparse the financial transaction request message. The financialtransaction request message including a cardholder response to an offerto enroll in a loyalty program of a commercial entity. The processor isfurther configured to store the cardholder response in the computerreadable storage medium.

In some embodiments, a system for use in performing a financialtransaction includes a computer readable storage medium and a processorin communication with the computer readable storage medium. Theprocessor is configured to receive data from a payment device, receive acardholder's response to an offer to enroll in a loyalty program of acommercial entity, and transmit a financial transaction authorizationrequest message. The financial transaction authorization messageincludes data representative of the cardholder's response and the datareceived from the payment device.

In some embodiments, a method for performing a transaction includesreceiving a financial transaction request message from a payment devicereader and parsing the financial transaction request message. Thefinancial transaction request message including a cardholder response toan offer to enroll in a loyalty program of a commercial entity. Themethod includes storing the cardholder response in the computer readablestorage medium.

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving data from a paymentdevice, receiving a cardholder's response to an offer to enroll in aloyalty program of a commercial entity, and transmitting a financialtransaction authorization request message. The financial transactionauthorization message includes data representative of the cardholder'sresponse and the data received from the payment device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for performing afinancial transaction.

FIG. 2 is block diagram of an exemplary architecture of a paymentprocessing system as illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a data field that may be storedon a payment device illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a Tag-Length-Value (TLV) format of a datafield as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of data moving through the financialtransaction network illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that may be performed by a payment devicereader.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram that may be performed by a payment processor asillustrated in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 5, one example of a system and methodinvolving a payment device 100 allowing a cardholder to opt into aloyalty or rewards program associated with financial transactions is nowdescribed. FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system configured toperform a financial transaction, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart describingthe flow of data through the system illustrated in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, a payment device 100 may be any credit, debit, orprepaid device that may be used in a financial transaction. Examples ofa payment device include, but are not limited to, a standardcredit/debit card 100 a, a radio frequency (also known as “contactless”or “PAY WAVE™”) payment device 100 b, a mobile phone device 100 c, amini-card 100 d, micro tag 100 e, payment fob, or any other paymentdevice that may be used to perform a financial transaction and storecustomer exclusive non-financial data. The term payment device 100 isused below to refer to any of the devices 100 a-100 e. As used herein,acquirer 120 refers to one or more computer processors or networks ownedand/or operated by an acquirer entity. The payment processor 200 refersto one or more computer processors or networks owned and/or operated bya payment processing entity (such as the “VISANET” network operated byVISA, Inc. of Foster City, Calif.). The issuer 130 refers to one or morecomputer processors or networks owned or operated by an issuer financialinstitution. Thus, blocks 110, 120, 200 and 130 include particularmachines coupled to each other directly or indirectly by one or morecommunications networks.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one example of a payment processor 200.Payment processor 200 may be any payment network including, but notlimited to the, “VISANET™”, network operated by Visa, Inc. of FosterCity, Calif. The payment processor 200 is configured to parse or use thedata stored on the payment device/card 100 in a financial transactionand a non-financial transaction.

Payment processor 200 may be a server, computer, or any device or groupof devices that may be configured to transmit, receive, and/or storefinancial transaction data. As shown in FIG. 2, payment processor 200may include one or more processors 202, which may be connected to awired or wireless communication infrastructure 206 (e.g., acommunications bus, cross-over bar, local area network (LAN), or widearea network (WAN)). Processor(s) 202 may be any central processingunit, microprocessor, micro-controller, computational device, or likedevice that has been programmed to form a special purpose processor forperforming the payment processor functions. In some embodiments,processor(s) 202 may be functionally comprised of a data processor 222and a fraud prevention engine 224. Fraud prevention engine 224 mayfurther include a data parser 226, a form factor identifier 228, and acustomer data manager 230. These structures may be implemented ashardware, firmware, or software encoded on a computer readable medium,such as main memory 204 or secondary memory 208, which may be accessedby processor(s) 202.

Main memory 204 may be a local or working memory such as a random accessmemory (RAM). Secondary memory 208 may be a more persistent memory thanmain memory 204. Examples of secondary memory 208 include, but are notlimited to, a hard disk drive 210 and/or removable storage drive 212,representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical diskdrive, or the like. The removable storage drive 212 may read from and/orwrite to a removable storage unit 216. Removable storage unit 216 may bea floppy disk, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, optical disk, ZIP™ drive,blu-ray disk, and the like, which may written to and/or read byremovable storage drive 212.

In some embodiments, secondary memory 208 may include other similardevices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into payment processor 200 such as a removable storage device 218and an interface 214. An example of such a removable storage device 218and interface 214 includes, but is not limited to, a USB flash drive andassociated USB port, respectively. Other removable storage devices 218and interfaces 214 that allow software and data to be transferred fromthe removable storage device 218 to payment processor 200 may be used.

Payment processor 200 may also include a communications interface 220.Communications interface 220 allows software and data to be transferredbetween payment processor 200 and external devices, e.g., devicesresiding at a location of an issuer 130, acquirer 120, merchant 110, athird-party processing system, or the like. Examples of communicationsinterface 220 may include a modem, a network interface (such as anEthernet or wireless network card), a communications port, a PersonalComputer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card,or the like. Software and data transferred via communications interface220 are in the form of signals which may be electronic, electromagnetic,optical, or any other signal capable of being received by communicationsinterface 220. These signals are provided to communications interface220 via a communications path or channel. The path or channel thatcarries the signals may be implemented using wire or cable, fiberoptics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radio frequency (RF) link,or the like.

A financial transaction may be any operation involving a payment device100, whether a payment, reimbursement, or any other interaction using apayment device 100. Financial transactions may include credit, debit,payroll, or charge transactions.

Payment devices 100 may include various types of stored information.FIG. 3 depicts a data field 55 (also referred to as “Field 55”), whichis a memory field on payment device 100 that may be configured to storefinancial and non-financial information. In some embodiments, the memoryfield is stored in a computer chip within payment device 100. Althoughimplementations of Field 55 may vary in storage size, in someembodiments the storage size may be limited to a maximum of 255 bytes ofdata. One of the features of Field 55 is the ability to allow uniquepersonalization values to be included in the authorization messages.These values are also known as tags or data structures. Field 55 tagsmay include data embedded in the chip that an issuer 130 (e.g., afinancial institution that issues a payment device 100 such as a bank orother commercial entity) requests to receive in an authorizationmessage.

As shown in FIG. 3, in one embodiment of Field 55, the Field 55 dataelements may include: an amount authorized 302, a random number 304, anapplication transaction counter (ATC) 306, issuer application data (IAD)308, an application cryptogram 310, customer exclusive data 312, and aform factor identifier 314.

The customer exclusive data field 312 is now described in detail.Examples of the information or data that may be included in the customerexclusive data field 312 include, but are not limited to, loyalty orrewards program information and promotional deal information. The datain the customer exclusive data field 312 may be configured by a paymentdevice reader 105 as described below.

The data stored in Field 55, including the customer exclusive data tag312, may be stored in any format. In some embodiments, customerexclusive data tag 312 and other data fields are stored inTag-Length-Value (TLV) format. FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of aTLV format. The tag field 402 identifies the position of theinformation, the length field 404 identifies the length of theinformation, and value field 406 carries the payload data.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of one example of financial transaction flow. Atblock 502, a consumer or cardholder may use the payment device 100 at apayment device reader 105 (e.g., a magnetic swipe reader, contactlessdevice reader, or the like) located at a merchant 110, kiosk (e.g., aticketing kiosk), automated teller machine (ATM), gasoline pump, oranywhere else a payment device reader 105 may be located. The paymentdevice reader 105 may include a user interface such as a display and akeypad or a touch screen display as well as a computer readable storagemedium.

For example, a cardholder may swipe a credit/debit card 100 a through amagnetic swipe reader or wave a contactless payment device 100 b near acontactless payment device reader 105. The payment device reader 105receives information from the payment device 100, which may include theinformation described above with respect to Field 55. The payment devicereader 105 may locally store the information received from the paymentdevice 100 in the computer readable storage medium.

At block 504, the cardholder may be queried by the payment device orterminal to identify the cardholder's zip code, phone number, todetermine whether the amount to be charged is correct, or any otherquestion that may be implemented in a payment device reader 105 toprovide security to the cardholder as well as confirm the accuracy ofthe transaction. The cardholder may enter his or her responses using thekeypad, touch screen, or other user interface provided by, or connectedto, the payment device reader 105. In some embodiments a sales clerk orother employee of a merchant or service provider may enter theinformation for the cardholder.

At block 506, the cardholder is presented with one or more offers toopt-in to a rewards or loyalty program, or asked whether the cardholderwould like to receive a special offer from a merchant 110, issuer 130,or other commercial entity. Examples of other commercial entitiesinclude, but are not limited to, banks, supermarkets, airlines,department stores, automobile manufacturers, restaurants, wholesalers,electronic stores, consumer websites, or the like. For example, acardholder may be queried or prompted by the payment device reader 105regarding whether he or she would like to join a rewards or loyaltyprogram such as, for example, a frequent flier program, frequent shopperprogram, a frequent diner program, or any like program in which acommercial entity provides a discount or benefit to a customer forone-time (e.g., a coupon) or repeated business.

In some embodiments, the cardholder may be presented with a specialoffer or promotion that is currently offered by a merchant 110, acquirer130 (e.g., a commercial bank), or other commercial entity. For example,a merchant 110 may partner with another merchant 110 or business in across-promotional deal. In this example, the cardholder may be asked ifhe or she would like a coupon for a discount on goods or servicesoffered by the other business. If the cardholder answers in theaffirmative, then the coupon may be printed along with the receipt forthe current financial transaction.

In some embodiments, a cardholder may be presented with the option tochange or confirm his or her home phone number, cellular phone number,billing address, or other personal information that is associated withthe payment device account. One skilled in the art will understand thatthe number of queries and the types of programs or offers presented tothe cardholder may be varied.

At block 508, the cardholder may enter his/her response(s) to the offerto opt into the rewards or loyalty program. The cardholder may enter theresponse using the touch screen display or keypad associated with thepayment device reader 105. The payment device reader 105 may locallystore the cardholder's response in a computer readable storage mediumalong with the information concerning the financial transaction. Oneskilled in the art will understand that the functions described withreference to blocks 506 and 508 may be performed before, during, orafter the purchase process described above with reference to block 504.

At block 510, the payment device reader 105 may combine and format thefinancial transaction information and the cardholder's response(s) intoTLV format or other format that may be included in an authorizationmessage for performing a financial transaction. The authorizationmessage is transmitted by the payment device reader 105 to an acquirer120 at block 512. The acquirer 120 may obtain information from theissuer 130 of the payment device indicating whether the cardholder iscredit worthy or if the payment device 100 has sufficient funds orcredit to pay for the transaction. The acquirer 120 may then forward thedetails of the financial transaction to a payment processor 200. In someembodiments, payment device reader 105 may transmit the authorizationmessages directly to the payment processor 200 without sending theauthorization messages to an acquirer 120.

At block 514, the payment processor 200 receives the authorizationmessages which may include the details of a financial transaction andthe cardholders response(s) concerning opting into one or more rewardsprograms, loyalty programs, or to take advantage of a special discountor deal.

At block 516, the data parser 226 associated with the fraud preventionengine 224 parses and processes the financial information and/or thecardholder's opt in response(s) stored in the Field 55 data tags. Forexample, data parser 226 may separate the information concerning thefinancial transaction from the Field 55 data, which includes the opt-inresponse(s). In some embodiments, data parser 226 further performsediting, storage, distribution, monitoring, and reporting functions. Forexample, the Field 55 data may be stored in a computer readable storagemedium such as main memory 204 or secondary memory 208 of paymentprocessor 200. In some embodiments, the secondary memory 208 may includea cardholder database 250 that retains information concerning eachcardholder serviced by payment processor 200, (e.g., each Visacardholder).

At block 518, payment processor 200 forwards the parsed financialinformation to the payment card issuer 130 for processing. The issuer130 will transmit a payment authorization response message to paymentprocessor 200, which is then forwarded to payment device reader 105either through acquirer 120 or directly to merchant 110 at block 520where the financial transaction is completed. In some embodiments whenthe issuer 130 is unavailable to process the financial transaction, thepayment processor 200 may process the transaction data on behalf of theissuer 130.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a process 600 of opting into a promotionaloffer during a financial transaction. It is understood by one skilled inthe art that process 600 may be performed at a point-of-sale (POS),e.g., a payment device reader 105 or terminal, located at a merchant 110or other location such as a kiosk, ATM, or any location where a paymentdevice reader 105 may be located.

As shown in FIG. 6, a payment device 100 is swiped or waved at a paymentdevice reader 105 such that the payment device reader 105 receives theinformation stored on the payment device at block 602. At block 604, thepurchase transaction is initiated and/or performed at the payment devicereader 105. For example, the cardholder may be prompted by the paymentdevice reader 105 to confirm or authorize the amount of the transaction,enter the cardholder's telephone number or zip code associated with thepayment device 100, or any other information that is conventionally usedfor security or identification purposes. In response to these queries,the cardholder may enter his or her answers on a keypad, touch screeninterface, or any other input device that may be connected to paymentdevice reader 105.

At block 606, the payment device reader 105 may prompt a cardholder ifhe or she would like to take advantage of a special offer or opt into arewards or loyalty program. For example, the payment device reader 105may query if the cardholder would like to enroll in a frequent flier orshopper program or if the cardholder would like to receive a discount orcoupon for a merchant. The payment device reader 105 may perform thequerying by displaying the message on a monitor or display such as anLCD display that may be part of, or connected to, the payment devicereader 105.

The cardholder may enter his or her response to the opt-in querying inthe same manner in which the response(s) to the authorization orsecurity questions are entered, e.g., by entering the response on akeypad, touch screen, or the like. In some embodiments, if thecardholder responds that he or she would like to enroll in a loyalty orrewards program, the cardholder may be asked to confirm that thepersonal information that is received from the payment device 100, e.g.,customer exclusive data 312, is correct and that this information shouldbe used to populate similar fields for the rewards or loyalty program.For example, the cardholder's telephone number, address, or otherinformation that may be stored on payment device 100 may be used toautomatically fill out a rewards or loyalty program application bypayment device reader 105. One skilled in the art will appreciate thatthe opt-in querying may be performed before, during, or after thepayment transaction performed at block 604.

At block 608, the payment device reader 105 may transmit a financialtransaction authorization request message to an acquirer 120 or directlyto a payment processor 200. The financial transaction authorizationrequest message may have the cardholder's response to the opt-inquerying embedded within the message. For example, the cardholder'sresponse may be embedded within data received from Field 55 of thepayment device 100.

At block 610, the payment device reader 105 receives a financialtransaction response message from either an acquirer 120 or a paymentprocessor 200. In some embodiments, the financial transaction responsemessage may include cardholder-specific loyalty program data. Forexample, the financial transaction response message may include aconfirmation number for the cardholder, a loyalty or rewards clubmembership number, or the like.

At block 612, the payment device reader 105 may display thecardholder-specific loyalty program data. For example, the paymentdevice reader 105 may display the confirmation number or loyalty orrewards club membership number to the cardholder on the monitor attachedto, or in communication with, the payment device reader 105. In someembodiments, the payment device reader 105 may cause a confirmationmessage or coupon to be printed along with the receipt for the financialtransaction.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a process 700 of opting into a promotionaloffer during a financial transaction that may be performed by paymentprocessor 200 in response to the process 600 performed by the paymentdevice reader 105 described above.

As shown in FIG. 7, payment processor 200 receives a financialtransaction authorization request message at block 702. As describedabove, the financial transaction authorization request message mayinclude the cardholder's response to the opt-in querying embedded withinthe message.

At block 704, the data parser 226 of payment processor 200 parses thefinancial transaction authorization request message including the datastored in Field 55, which may include the cardholder's responses to theopt-in querying. The payment processor 200 may store the data related tothe opt-in querying in a cardholder database 250 at block 706. Asdescribed above, the cardholder database 250, may be a main memory 204or secondary memory 208 of payment processor 200 or it may be a separatecomputer readable storage medium remotely located from payment processor200.

At block 708, payment processor 200 may contact the commercial entityoffering the rewards program or promotional offer. For example, paymentprocessor 200 may transmit a message to the commercial entityidentifying that the cardholder accepted the offer to enroll into theloyalty or rewards program, or is interested in receiving whateverdiscount or promotional item was offered. Additionally, the paymentprocessor 200 may include the cardholder's address, phone number, orother information that may be stored in the cardholder database that thecommercial entity may use in enrolling the cardholder in the loyaltyprogram.

At block 710, payment processor 200 may receive a confirmation messagefrom the commercial entity. The confirmation message may identify thatthe cardholder has been successfully enrolled in the loyalty program.Additionally, the confirmation message may include cardholder-specificloyalty program data such as a membership number, confirmation number,or the like.

At block 712, payment processor 200 performs the financial transactionby transmitting a message to an issuer 130. At block 714, the paymentprocessor 200 receives a response from the issuer 130 identifying if thefinancial transaction is approved or denied. One skilled in the art willunderstand that payment processor 200 may contact the commercial entitybefore, after, or while the payment processor 200 performs the financialtransaction. Note that in some embodiments the issuer 130 may beunavailable to process the financial transactions, in which case thepayment processor 200 may process the transaction data on behalf of theissuer 130 without transmitting and receiving messages from the issuer130.

At block 716, the payment processor 200 transmits a financialtransaction response message to either acquirer 120 or directly topayment device reader 105, which may be located at a merchant 110. Insome embodiments, the financial transaction response message may includethe cardholder-specific loyalty program data.

The present invention may be embodied in the form ofcomputer-implemented processes and apparatus for practicing thoseprocesses. The present invention may also be embodied in tangiblemachine readable storage media encoded with computer program code, suchas random access memory (RAM), floppy diskettes, read only memories(ROMs), CD-ROMs, hard disk drives, flash memories, or any othermachine-readable storage medium, wherein, when the computer program codeis loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes aparticular machine for practicing the invention. When implemented on ageneral-purpose processor, the computer program code segments configurethe processor to create specific logic circuits. The invention mayalternatively be embodied in a digital signal processor formed ofapplication specific integrated circuits for performing a methodaccording to the principles of the invention.

Although the invention has been described in terms of exemplaryembodiments, it is not limited thereto. Rather, the appended claimsshould be construed broadly, to include other variants and embodimentsof the invention, which may be made by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the scope and range of equivalents of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: at least one processor, andmemory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least oneprocessor to: receive, over a communication network, from a merchantpayment device reader, a cardholder response to an offer to enroll in aloyalty program of a commercial entity; and in response to thecardholder response to the offer to enroll in the loyalty program of thecommercial entity, transmit loyalty program enrollment information tothe cardholder.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions arefurther configured to instruct the processor to: retrievecardholder-specific data from a storage medium accessible by the systemin response to the cardholder response to the offer to enroll in theloyalty program of the commercial entity; and transmit thecardholder-specific data to the commercial entity.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct theprocessor to: receive a message from the commercial entity, the messagecomprising cardholder-specific loyalty program data; and send thecardholder-specific loyalty program data to the cardholder.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the cardholder-specific loyalty program dataincludes a loyalty program rewards membership number.
 5. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct theprocessor to: transmit the cardholder-specific loyalty program data to amonitor for displaying to the cardholder.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct theprocessor to: transmit the cardholder-specific loyalty program data to aprinter for printing.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructionsare further configured to instruct the processor to cause a paymentdevice reader to display the offer to enroll in the loyalty program. 8.A method comprising: receiving, over a communication network, from amerchant payment device reader, a cardholder response to an offer toenroll in a loyalty program of a commercial entity; and in response tothe cardholder response to the offer to enroll in the loyalty program ofthe commercial entity, transmitting loyalty program enrollmentinformation to the cardholder.
 9. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising: retrieving, via the computing device, cardholder-specificdata from the storage medium in, response to the cardholder response tothe offer to enroll in the loyalty program of the commercial entity; andtransmitting, via the computing device, the cardholder-specific data tothe commercial entity.
 10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:receiving a message from the commercial entity, the message comprisingcardholder-specific loyalty program data; and sending thecardholder-specific loyalty program data to the cardholder.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the cardholder-specific loyalty program dataincludes a loyalty program rewards membership number.
 12. The method ofclaim 8, further comprising: transmitting a response message to thepayment device reader, the response message causing the payment devicereader to display a message confirming enrollment in the loyaltyprogram.
 13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause thecomputing device to perform a method, the method comprising: receiving,over a communication network, from a merchant payment device reader, acardholder response to an offer to enroll in a loyalty program of acommercial entity; and in response to the cardholder response to theoffer to enroll in the loyalty program of the commercial entity,transmitting loyalty program enrollment information to the cardholder.14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13,wherein the method further comprises: retrieving cardholder-specificdata from a storage medium, in response to the cardholder response tothe offer to enroll in the loyalty program of the commercial entity; andtransmitting the cardholder-specific data to the commercial entity. 15.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, whereinthe method further comprises: receiving a message from the commercialentity, the message comprising cardholder-specific loyalty program data;and sending a message to the payment device reader, the messagecomprising the cardholder-specific loyalty program data.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thecardholder-specific loyalty program data includes a loyalty programrewards membership number.
 17. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:transmitting a message to the payment device reader, the message causingthe payment device reader to display a message confirming enrollment inthe loyalty program.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: receiving aresponse message, the response message comprising cardholder-specificloyalty program data.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 18, wherein the cardholder-specific loyalty program dataincludes a membership identification number of the cardholder.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein themethod further comprises: transmitting cardholder-specific loyaltyprogram data to a monitor for displaying to the cardholder.
 21. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein themethod further comprises: transmitting the cardholder-specific loyaltyprogram data to a printer for printing.
 22. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method furthercomprises: displaying the offer to enroll in the loyalty program of thecommercial entity to the cardholder.